NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- U.S. stocks remained negative early afternoon Thursday as geopolitical caution sparked by Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko's statement that Russia has invaded Ukraine helped trigger a flight-to-safety rally. Poroshenko called an emergency meeting of the nation's security council and canceled a foreign trip, declaring that "Russian forces have entered Ukraine."

Watch the video below for a closer look at how U.S. markets are doing in midday trading Thursday:

Markets were off session lows. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.19% to 17,089.80. The S&P 500 was down 0.1% to 1,998.04.The Nasdaq was down 0.13% to 4,563.50.

The search for safety pushed the Guggenheim CurrencyShares JapaneseYen Trust up 0.14% to $93.90 and the SPDR Gold Trust up 0.6% to $124.07.

The United States Oil Fund rose 0.71% to $35.28 and the Guggenheim CurrencyShares Euro Trust fell 0.18% to $129.89, influenced by worries about the impact rising Russia-Ukraine tensions could have on the single-currency bloc and how the fallout could affect global oil exports.

In London, the FTSE 100 slipped 0.36% to 6,805.80. In Frankfurt, the DAX declined 1.12% to 9,462.56. The CAC in Paris gave up 0.66% to stand at 4,366.04.

U.S. economic data was better than expected, with the second estimate of U.S. second-quarter GDP revised up to 4.2% vs. the 4% consensus estimate. Weekly initial jobless claims fell to 298,000 last week vs. the average estimate of 300,000. Pending home sales rebounded by 3.3% in July. The Kansas City Fed Labor Market Conditions Indicators showed continued improvement, increasing in July to -0.6.

In Thursday's corporate news, JPMorgan Chase slipped 0.6% to $59.23. TheWall Street Journal reported that the FBI is investigating a computer-hacking attack on JPMorgan Chase $(JPM) and as many as four other banks.

Abercrombie & Fitch lost 3.81% to $42.34 after reporting a 7% drop in total same-store sales and 6% decline in revenue to $891 million. Dollar General rose 1.6% to $64.72 after posting second-quarter earnings of 83 cents a share, which matched estimates. The company on Thursday reiterated its bid for rival Family Dollar . Earlier this month, Dollar General bid about $8.95 billion for Family Dollar in an attempt to trump Dollar Tree , which agreed to acquire Family Dollar for $8.5 billion in July.

The S&P 500 ended Wednesday almost where it was after Tuesday's closing -- just above 2,000, after flitting in and out of positive territory throughout the day in the absence of any new economic catalysts.